The Philippines have long been the center of attraction for global Business Process Outsourcing.

However, Africa is rapidly emerging as a formidable alternative, offering unique advantages that are changing the global outsourcing landscape.

This post explores why Africa is a good alternative to the Philippines in delivering excellent customer service.

Africa Customer Outsourcing - The Rising Stars

The African global business services projected the total African GBS offshoring market to reach US$11.7 billion by 2023.

In the same vein, a recent research forecast positions Nigeria’s Business Process Outsourcing Market growth rate at 12.56% annually.

It is worth noting that Nigeria’s population accounts for about 47% of the West African population (Mercy Corps, 2023)

According to this report, the key features in Africa Customer Outsourcing are the ability to offer them at a relatively cheaper rate as well as exhibiting proficiency in English, which is a competitive advantage of the average Nigerian youth in comparison to other countries like India and the Philippines.

Aside from Nigeria doing exploits in Africa customer outsourcing, South Africa is also rated excellent in offering BPO services.

When surveyed by enterprise executives, it was rated the country's best in terms of contact center voice, back office processing, and customer administration service delivery is better.

Africa is well-positioned to offer BPO services in comparison to countries like the Philippines, with favourable characteristics like time zones and multilingual capabilities:

Northern Africa has already seen many BPO successes coming out of Morocco and Egypt – Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria have emerged to serve French-language support requirements. In the sphere of Africa customer outsourcing, Egypt has also established a strong outsourcing capability with government support over the last decade.

Interestingly, 85% of global companies now consider Africa as a destination for Customer Experience Management (CXM) outsourcing, a report from Everest and CCI Global finds.

Despite the advantages of Africa customer outsourcing, some myths still exist on outsourcing services to Africa.

Common Myths About Outsourcing to Africa

Africa doesn’t have strong internet

Many urban hubs (Lagos, Nairobi, Kigali) now have reliable, high-speed connections and modern co-working setups.

Similarly, ongoing investments are being made to provide infrastructural development. There is a high government initiative to grow BPOs in Africa.

To mention a few are the Nigerian and South African government initiatives.

In South Africa, government initiatives have helped to increase revenue from BPO in the country.

The Nigerian government is not left out as well as they have shown their dedication to developing the Nigerian outsourcing market.

According to the Nigerian government, this is a mission to produce millions of job opportunities and propel Nigeria’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) into unprecedented growth.

With sufficient government investment in Africa in growing BPO, Africa would be more equipped to compete with countries with mature BPO services in terms of the requisite infrastructural facilities, like strong or stable Internet.

2. The African BPOS talent isn’t as experienced as in Asian markets

Africa customer outsourcing service now provides talents that are growing fast, who receive training from global platforms like Andela, ALX, and remote work programs.

The Africa Global Business Services (GBS) Benchmarking and Market Report interviewed over 140 global enterprise executives from organizations in Australia, Canada, Germany, France, the UK, and the US that outsource, or plan to outsource, to Africa.

These executives were asked to rank and rate each African country, including service level delivery across various key business process areas.

In addition, profiling surveys were conducted on over 500 GBS service providers and delivery centers across 19 African countries.

The 19 African country-profiling surveys represented a mix of mature and emerging GBS locations in Africa that now serve as key locations for global and local investors and buyers, and ranked better due to better talent capabilities.

According to UNESCO, between 2000-2016, university enrollment in Africa increased by 200%.

Leading economies like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt produce hundreds of thousands of university graduates every year.

A huge number of Africans are young, tech-savvy, and have excellent team management skills as well as knowledge of advanced software, which makes them well-suited for the BPO global market.

3. Concerns on Culture and Language barriers.

African teams provide a warm, empathetic, and professional customer service. An example is that the Nigerian and South African BPO providers perform so well in North American markets because the accent, although not American, has a strong British influence and is clear and easily understood.

Also, when it comes to customer experience and cultivating a culture of empathy, Africa’s call center agents are comparatively advanced.

They also seamlessly flow with certain figures of speech, euphemisms, and terminologies used in the US, Europe, the UK, and Australia.

In addition, African professionals can grasp cultural context and subtext, leading to fewer misunderstandings and higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Notable African countries like South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria offer exceptional communication, problem-solving, and technological skills necessary for success in customer service.

Customer service and business process outsourcing are fast becoming some of Africa’s top industries, especially given the government’s investment in technological and telecommunications infrastructure and other efforts to attract foreign business investments.

Benefits of Africa Customer Outsourcing

The benefits outweigh the cost for US and UK companies that outsource to Africa.

1. Africa Customer Outsourcing is Scalable

Africa customer outsourcing can often adapt quickly to changing requirements, offering scalable solutions tailored to meet the needs of businesses while offering a cost-saving advantage.

They include better alignment with UK and US working hours, Lower costs, and Strong English-speaking professionals with a customer-first mindset. Which usually results in cost reduction, faster response time, and improved CSAT rates.

2. More young and tech-savvy professionals abound within Africa customer outsourcing

U.S and UK businesses can tap into the budding market of Africa’s young and tech-savvy talents for their customer service outsourcing.

Companies now hire talent in Africa, allowing individuals to work from locations like Cape Town, Nairobi, Lagos, or Dar es Salaam, provided they have internet access and are in time zones that are compatible.

The current African demographic profile, which is also a significant factor, has the world's youngest population, which is extremely tech-savvy, thereby making it easier to adapt to modern technological advancements.

3. Africa Customer Outsourcing is competitively priced

One of the key reasons for outsourcing is the ability to save money.

Western countries rely on fairly lower exchange rates and lower costs of living in other countries to decrease their costs of labour while still offering a fair wage to their team members.

Conclusion

Africa BPO offers cheaper outsourcing options and still maintains the requisite quality of service.

Africa Business Process Outsourcing market presents a compelling landscape of opportunities with increasing technological capabilities, the region has positioned itself as a competitive landscape.

It is rapidly solidifying its position as a competitive outsourcing destination, rivaling established players in the Philippines.

With cost-effective solutions, exceptional English proficiency, and a growing pool of tech-savvy professionals, African nations are reshaping the global BPO landscape.

As businesses increasingly turn to Africa for customer service excellence, now is the time to explore this dynamic market.

Ready to leverage Africa's customer outsourcing potential?

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Integrating Multi-channel Support

Modern customers prefer to engage with your company on their terms-be it via email, social media, live chat or, through a phone call.
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African Customer Service Outsourcing vs Philippines: Why Africa is a Good Alternative for Customer Support